5 pm Update: I & M confirms that only about 300 Michigan customers remain without power, with 290 of them being in the Buchanan area. About ten isolated outage reports in the Benton Harbor area. Several thousand customers remain out in the Three Rivers area, which experienced severe weather on Wednesday.
Indiana Michigan Power continues to put electric customers back on the grid, even as more storms knock out service across the region. The company says that 90% of Michigan customers affected will be back online by 10pm tonight (Thursday). The Elkhart area is expected to reach the 90% restoration level by 10pm Friday night. I & M suggests customers use its phone app to track the location of continued outages and the estimated time of restoration for specific neighborhoods.
The full text of the the latest I & M update follows:
This week’s fourth round of storms rolled through
I&M’s service territory overnight and early this
morning, creating a few thousand additional power
outages. 20,000 customers are without power as of
12:30 p.m.
The first storm Monday/Tuesday caused 17,000
customers to lose power at peak;
The second wave Tuesday/Wednesday
affected 27,000 customers at peak,
The third storm yesterday peaked at 39,000
customer outages.
Storms last night/this morning affected another
several thousand.
To date, more than 64,000 customers have been affected in total.
Through the multiple waves of storms and damage, our crews have restored power to more than 44,000 customers the past three days, working long hours in the heat and humidity.
Thus far, crews have found 41 broken poles, 24 damaged transformers, 20 broken pole crossarms and more than 220 spans of downed power lines as a result of this week’s storms.
As I&M moves into the later stages of storm restoration, much of the work transitions into smaller streets, neighborhoods and backyards. Damaged equipment is often hard to reach or inaccessible to trucks, and crews are climbing poles to continue repairs and utilizing specialized “backyard” machines, which are smaller bucket and augur units that can get to locations trucks cannot. I&M implores our customers to please watch for crews working along the road or in neighborhoods. Please drive slowly around work zones and do not approach crews for both their and your safety. Securing pets indoors or away from any areas of damage will also help.
A contingent of 1,000 workers are restoring power. I&M employees and contractors are being assisted by crews from AEP Ohio, Appalachian Power Company and the Public Service Company of Oklahoma (PSO), I&M’s sister companies. These crews consist of line workers, damage assessors, tree crews, meter specialists, and contractors. Dave Isaacson, Vice President Distribution Operations for I&M, shared a message from Elkhart, showing restoration work and thanking crews, which you can see here.ESTIMATED TIMES OF RESTORATION (ETRs):
Below are the estimated times of restorations. However, more severe weather is possible today,
which may hinder restoration efforts or cause additional outages.
90% of Buchanan and Benton Harbor area customers are estimated to be restored by 10 p.m.
tonight. Crews are climbing poles/trees to complete repairs in many hard-to-reach areas. 90% of Fort Wayne and South Bend area customers are estimated to be restored by 10 p.m.
tonight.
90% of Elkhart area customers are estimated to be restored by 6 p.m. tomorrow (Friday) night.
90% of Three Rivers, Mich. area customers are estimated to be restored by 10 p.m. tomorrow
(Friday) night.
I&M encourages customers to use the Indiana Michigan Power app to report and monitor the
status of any outage affecting your home or business IndianaMichiganPower.com/App.
See the location and status of outages using our outage map
at IndianaMichiganPower.com/OutageMap.
